Possible new problems on recently manufactured Fleck 7000 valves

[Julian Benz]

Just wanted to contribute some new important information about recently manufactured Fleck 7000 control valves which may or may not be a widespread problem. I forget the manufacture date on my valve but I installed it about a month ago and the serial number indicated a fairly recent date. I can check the date if people are interested.

The Problem:

I had recently noticed that the brine tank was filling up completely between regenerations when there should only be a few gallons of water in the tank with my 8 minutes of fill time. My salt usage had also been extremely high. Upon further inspection, I disconnect the brine line at the brine tank and placed it in a bucket. After a few hours with the control valve in the normal operating sequence (no regeneration queued) , the bucket had approx. 0.5-1.0 gallons of water in it.

This means the brine valve was slowly leaking water into the brine line when the control valve is in normal service mode. This also explained why my brine tank if filling completely between regenerations and why I observed my brine tank float has been pushed up to close the valve on the float assembly.

The Solution:

I contacted the distributor and they said Fleck was already aware of the problem. Apparently there was some manufacturing defect and Fleck is getting ready to do a recall. Fleck is about 6-8 weeks out from shipping replacement valves

-------------------

I hope this info is useful to people getting ready to buy or install new Fleck 7000 valves. I read a lot of good info on this site which helped me with my purchase, install, and setup of my new softener and just wanted contribute something back.

[ditttohead]

Correct. Fortunately only a very small amount of the valves are affected and Fleck will be correcting the issue shortly. We distribute huge amounts of the 7000's and so far we have only had 1 valve with this problem. A good company like Fleck will correct the issue and they are holding the valve temporarily until they are sure they have the problem resolved. We are quickly running out of valves but hopefully we will have a restock soon. Considering the very samll percentage of valves that are affected, and the fact that Fleck will correct it and send out the appropriate repair parts if anyone has one in the feild, I would not be too concerned. Clack, Fleck, Autotrol have all had their QC issues recently, and all three have corrected the problems without hassle. Other manufacturers that we distribute... lets just say their problem resolution teams are absent. All the problems get dumped on us.

[Julian Benz]

I guess I was just unlucky. Hopefully not too many people will run into this problem. However, some customers may not notice the problem right away since the only indicator would be excessive salt usage or closely watching the water level in between regenerations. The water softener would still always be providing soft water with the amount of brine far exceeding the necessary amount.

[Gary Slusser]

Fleck wouldn't be recalling the 7000 if there weren't a fairly large number of bad valves plus it sounds as if they have stopped shipping the 7000 until they find and fix the problem and get some out of production and tested.

I suggest that you ask dittohead what specific same type problems Autotrol and Clack have had.

[jamms]

It appears that I may have this problem. This past weekend I had 14" of water in my brine tank. I forced a cycle and after the 22 minute back fill I had about 9" of water. Now two days later I have 14" of water again.

[mialynette2003]

This is why I don't recommend a particular valve until it has been in the field for awhile. It took me over 10 years before I would recommend a Clack valve.

[Julian Benz]

It appears that I may have this problem. This past weekend I had 14" of water in my brine tank. I forced a cycle and after the 22 minute back fill I had about 9" of water. Now two days later I have 14" of water again.

Jamms, it is fairly easy to tell if your valve is defective. As I said in the first post, all I did was disconnect the brine line at the brine tank and place it in a bucket for a couple of hours when the control valve was in normal operation. In my case, the leak through the brine valve was very apparent since I had accumulated at least 0.5 gallons of water in a couple of hours.

[Julian Benz]

This is why I don't recommend a particular valve until it has been in the field for awhile. It took me over 10 years before I would recommend a Clack valve.

If Clack was still allowing sales through internet dealers, I would have probably gone that route. I was just not willing to spend the time or money to find a local Clack valve dealer which may or may not even be available in my area.

As far as I am concerned, Fleck will resolve the problem. If they did indeed move the manufacturing of these valves to the US, this should be fairly straight forward. The 7000SXT should be an okay choice for a control valve with a five year warranty and having been on the market for a few years.

[jamms]

Jamms, it is fairly easy to tell if your valve is defective. As I said in the first post, all I did was disconnect the brine line at the brine tank and place it in a bucket for a couple of hours when the control valve was in normal operation. In my case, the leak through the brine valve was very apparent since I had accumulated at least 0.5 gallons of water in a couple of hours.

I will test it with a bucket. However the extra water after cycle complete came from somewhere.
I done most of my research on Clack and Flec in 2009, but decided to purchase seals and repair the Echowater unit myself. When the unit recently failed again I decided I would go with Clack. Only to find they discontinued internet sales. I was fine with Flec. I only wish I had spent 1/4 the time researching dealers as I did the valves.
I can wait for a fix, but I am eating a lot of salt in the mean time.

[Philadd]

This is all very interesting. I installed a 7000 in my home last week and had this very same issue. Not sure if I got one of the defective valves or not but after disassembling and reassembling the darned thing three times I finally got it working correctly. The unfortunate thing is that I still have no idea what was wrong. I guess something I did in that third rebuild got corrected somehow. Nevertheless, it's working fine now and that's all that matters. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what Fleck has to say when they figure things out.

[Philadd]

Anyone heard anything about this recall recently? I thought I had my problem resolved but after the last backwash I started leaking water into the brine tank again. I've already broken it down three times so if I'm still having this problem I think I have to have one of the bad ones.

[ditttohead]

Fleck will be replacing all affected valves shortly. Looks like I should have a restock in a few days myself. Contact who you bought the valves from, they will take care of it shortly, as soon as their suplier gets restocked.

[Acropora]

Yep, per pentair the bad valves were made 10/19/12 to 2/15/13. I got one made in that timeframe from discountwatersofteners.com and am waiting for a replacement one. I've been going thru over 80# of salt a week and have hard water for a day after the unit regenerates

[ditttohead]

I have the bulletins from Fleck, just send me a PM with your email if you want a copy.

[amateurplumber1]

Thanks again dittohead! I checked the information on my valve; it was made on march 6th (or 8th, i forget)! Sweet!

Edit: Oh yeah, does pentair own fleck or something?